Nearly two days ago the Synthecan and Lion-Man had passed through the opening in the billboard. Pheyd had been quite surprised to find that the billboard in fact did not conceal the laboratory, but a large concrete tunnel the end of which even he could not see as after a kilometer it began to turn ever so slightly eastward.

Stasinus gave a puzzled look into the darkness with shining eyes then turned to Pheyd with an inquisitive stare. The Synthecan took note of his companions bewilderment and he himself was somewhat curious until he noted the ancient turbines above them. "You see those." Said Pheyd pointing up where fifteen feet above them were two enormous turbines, then another two after them spanning the entire width of the tunnel which was probably thirty feet across. "Those are turbines and they are attached to the small power plant buried above us. This is in fact not the lab, but I suspect that it lies on the other side of the mountain beside the dried up reservoir that the tunnel leads to."

"How do you know where this tunnel goes?" Asked Statinus, trying to make sense of how the turbines worked.

Pheyd furrowed his brow; he pitied the creatures of this world. "Long ago this tunnel was filled with rushing water and it would turn those turbines. There is no more water, so I assume the source is depleted." he explained.

Stasinus nodded and followed the Synthecan as proceeded down the tunnel with a carefree stroll that the cautious lion-man found disconcerting. Of course, Pheyd only appeared to be so, with every step he took his heightened senses were measuring wind drops, analyzing every anomalous sound and catching the smallest amount of movement. For someone to catch the Synthecan off guard they would have to be a ghost.

Doctor Bainbridge leaned back into his plush chair and swiveled back and forth in thought, while pensively tapping his chin with his clasped index fingers. Plans had changed, as it seemed his former henchman and Sin were coming to him now. It was a refreshing turn of events, and he had rewarded the bringer of the news with Clarence's position. Now Dravesh, the evolved chimpanzee, who was not even one of his creations was his number one. A rather cunning creature he had found beaten and left for dead, but he knew that one day he would rise up and take his rightful place at his side. Dravesh had proven himself by spying upon the Doctor's long awaited guests without being seen and returning with the information; really a small matter but enough to warrant Bainbridge's decision in the eyes of the hybrids. He new that the creatures would not follow the outsider unless he had merit, and in leu of Clarence's failure, Dravesh's promotion was readily accepted.



"You have been silent for some time, father." Stated Dravesh as he entered the small observatory, the thick glass before the Doctor a window to the cell of the great wolf beast he called Alex. Her vicious profile moved passed the glass as Dravesh stood before it. Alarmed he barred his teeth and chucked at the creature, waving his hand aggressively toward her, even though she could see through the two way glass. "Why do you keep that thing alive?" he spat.



Doctor Bainbridge had hardly acknowledged the presence of his number one, he remained in thought but when Drevash had referred to the wolfin-humanoid as a 'thing' he simply said in an apathetic tone, "Her name is Alex."

Drevash sneered at the beast then offered the man, he had always referred to as, father, a look of concern. "That was her name. Every day her mind slips a little more, she is near insane and yet you still insist are entering her cell. Father, I fear that one day she will turn on you."

Bainbridge smiled coldly, his eyes fixed on the window. "Will she?" He muttered.

Drevash drew closer to the doctor, with surprise and a hint of fear in his eyes. "Father, she is insane. For everyone's safety you should kill her."

The Doctor thrust his cold eyes on Drevash. "I will do no such thing!" he snapped.

Drevash stood his ground on the matter, "Father, I beseech you. Let go of the past or one day she will kill you."

Bainbridge returned his far away gaze to the window, staring at the powerful beast as she curled into a corner and watching her a maniacal grin stretched across his face. "So be it, then." he whispered.

Zack had been sleeping for a while but had woken up to find her opposite him on the couch he stood slowly peering through the door into the next room finding a glimmer of sunlight. He walked back away from the room looking around at which they had called base. Zack slowly began to stretch his muscles going down in a press up position taking a deep breath he began to do them on his thumbs his arms straining from the stress but he continued to go. Reaching his end sweat rolling of him his thumbs sore he gave a shake loosening muscles knowing it was time to go as the night called him but first was to wake Sin.

Zack walked up to the couch sitting down next to her as he looked down upon Sin her face perfectly relaxed within sleep he couldn’t help but feel hypocritical he had been with the Doc now Sin who else could he side with? He tilted his head to the side as he decided on his action tempted to kiss her….. No a shake will suffice to wake her and the last girl he had kissed had punched him pretty hard. He shook Sin by the shoulder lightly. “Time we got going Sin.”

Watching her as she got up stretching he stood up as well noticing how she averted her eyes. Zack slowly purposefully walked in a slow circle round her to stop behind her having his back to hers. “The plan was first to Recon the site for radios if established we would be able to continue our plan of splitting one went and did the diversion while the other went after the Doctor and Alex.” Stating the plan easily he turned round still finding her back to him he wrapped his arms round her kissing her on the cheek. “We share the same feeling I just find them hard to express at times.” Zack couldn’t help but let a small laugh the first time Sin had heard him laugh in joy.

Sin had already walked out the door as he picked his claymore from the floor. “Let’s get Bainbridge and Alex.” Zack followed suit but allowed Sin to get ahead as he had more trouble walking quickly quietly with the claymore on his back.

Zack and Sin had been walking slowly when they reached the billboard without incident Zack looked to Sin as she approached the tunnel. “Should we dictate who does what when we get the radio now?” wondering who would get this golden opportunity to kill the Doctor. He looked deep into Sin’s eyes hoping she didn’t realise he was estimating her chances of killing Bainbridge.

He walked past her his hands outstretched as he began to walk through the tunnel he knew it would begin to turn it would leave him in full sight if he continued pulling himself to a side taking the claymore off putting it point first to the floor he waited his coat making him mould into the wall and hiding his claymore the guard noticed when suddenly the wall moves he had no time to scream as suddenly found himself staring at the toe of a boot Zack had carved the head off he had found it difficult in such a tight space to have control over his blade the radio had miraculously stayed intact he crouched down picking it up.

“We can move to the next phase, we will use the other caged hybrids as an escape route as it would be better in numbers then.” He found the guard had been a simple human. “Easy kill.” Zack stood back up looking to Sin as she walked past him to continue into the labyrinth of tunnels which was the lab.

Indeed she was right they had stopped at a crossroad he looked over each direction carefully. “This is the 3rd crossing.” He took a left Sin following behind him. They continued sneaking round guard patrols and certain hybrids which may have caused trouble they came to another crossroad. “This is our last turning.” Reaching into the matt of hair he pulled a roll of paper handing it to Sin.

“In that paper is the code number to the doors none of the vault doors have DNA scanners, all you have to do is convince your sister to leave it may be hard that’s my warning.” He reached into his coat he pulled a rather peculiar item a small smooth edged gold ring. “Alex told me to look after it.” He placed it into Sin’s hand. He pointed down own of the routes. “That one leads to her we will call on the radio when we finished I will be down here.” Pointing to a route next to hers. “Good luck Sin.”

Long after Sin and Zack had passed beneath the ancient maintenance hatch in the ceiling of the tunnel, there was the squeal of a rusty lock being turned then the heavy iron door swung open. From it descended the pale skinned, Synthecan. He landed deftly onto the concrete, crouched like cat, as he searched the depths of corridor for any signs of a guard or the two they were following. Satisfied, they were alone, Pheyd stepped a steps to the side and the giant lion-man dropped down from the hatch landing softly.



Stasinus looked back up at the hatch where Pheyd had decided to hide when he had informed him that he had a 'feeling' that someone was coming. He had been surprised at first, no one had ever put such trust in his empathic senses, but the Synthecan did not hesitate to react, he immediately searched for a place to hide but all he could spy was the old hatch, fifteen feet above them. With an incredible leap, Pheyd soared through the air and caught old of the door and wrenched it open, then holding fast he reached out his hand and told Stasinus to jump and he would pull him up. The lion-man's first reaction was laughter, but Pheyd was serious, so warning the man that 'he would not be responsible for tearing his arm off', jumped up and caught hold of the Synthecan's sturdy arm. Though Pheyd's arm was much smaller in comparison to the lion-man's it was nonetheless near as powerful as his own, and he was able to pull the giant humanoid up into the narrow shaft which long ago would have been used for maintenance purposes. Crammed in the tight space, clinging to tiny ladder, Stasinus waited, then a half hour later, just when he thought he would go mad, Pheyd had squeezed by him to investigate the tunnel.

Standing in the empty channel, Stasinus could not be that sure what had just transpired, but Pheyd was positive that he had heard the wolf-woman and her tall companion skulk by fifteen minutes ago. He informed the lion-man he had purposely waited the extra time to make sure they were long gone by they time they emerged from hiding so that there would be no chance of their detection.

"Why not join them?" Asked Stasinus, puzzled by his companion's actions.

Pheyd narrowed his eyes, contemplating the question then nodded ever so slightly when he had formulated his answer. "You believe there is strength in numbers and you would be correct to believe so, but" he raised his index finger, "wouldn't you rather be a knight or a bishop? In chess, the pawns go first, my friend and until they prove to be otherwise that is what they are to us."

Stasinus softly growled disapprovingly. He did not believe anyone was expendable but could not dispute the logic of the military minded robot. "I will still offer them aid should they need it." swore the lion-man.

"Suit yourself." Replied Pheyd, then he tapped his nose a few times and gestured down the tunnel, that Stasinus use his nose to follow the scents.

Making their way along the ancient waterway, they came across junctions which Pheyd explained were tributaries that would add water to the main channel. Then when Stasinus began leading them down one of them, he was confused. "Are you sure they went down here?"

Stasinus nodded. "Why does this puzzle you?"

"Because I assumed that we would emerge on the other side of the mountain and that the old research facility might be on the edge of the ancient reservoir." Pheyd explained.

"So this is not what you have been searching for?" Figured Stasinus.

"Perhaps not, but please lead on. I would like to see more of this place." Requested Pheyd.

Stasinus suddenly stopped and reaching behind him placed a staying hand before the Synthecan. Pheyd instantly stopped and strained his ears to detect any noises ahead of them, but apparently what alerted his comrade required an empathic sensitivity. No words were spoken and silently they backed away, together and made there way down a narrow side corridor in which Stasinus was forced to crouch as the the clearance of the ceiling was only seven feet.

The tunnel's floor had a slight incline and as they ascended into the darkness, they traveled for about ten minutes and in that time, Pheyd calculated that they had climbed approximately 15.27 meters, give or take a few centimeters. Then they came a locked steel doorway with a keypad illuminated by LED lighting and there was no way that Stasinus was able to pry it open.

"Allow me." Said Pheyd as he stepped around the giant Lion-man and began to, with incredible speed and hand-eye coordination attempt various combinations.